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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27151379">stumbling home after midnight</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estelle/pseuds/Estelle'>Estelle</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Arthur/Eames Month [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Inception (2010)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alcohol, Discussions of marriage, Established Relationship, M/M, Truth or Dare, not actually a proposal though</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 22:41:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>694</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27151379</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estelle/pseuds/Estelle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The team wants to know how Arthur and Eames really met. Clearly, playing "Truth or Dare" is the way to find out.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Arthur/Eames (Inception)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Arthur/Eames Month [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974016</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>77</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>stumbling home after midnight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For <a href="https://arthureamesmonth.tumblr.com/">arthureamesmonth</a> week 3: Backstory</p>
<p>The title is from Lost by Blake Rose, since that was one of the prompts aswell.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The job is dragging on. It’s quite easy and straightforward, but involves a lot of gathering intel, which unfortunately they have to wait for.<br/>It’s one of those evenings where they don’t have much to do, but no one really wants to go back to their hotel room just yet, so Ariadne proposes a game. And after Yusuf has supplied home made glühwein, “truth or dare” is in full swing quickly.<br/>Eames has just chosen truth, and everyone is delighted.<br/>“Okay, okay, I got this!” Yusuf points at him excitedly. “How did you and Arthur <i>really</i> meet?”<br/>“Nice one!” Ariadne high fives him, and Arthur raises his eyebrows.<br/>Eames grins at him. “Darling, it seems like they don’t believe our beautiful and <i>various</i> stories.”<br/>Arthur laughs, a testament to the alcohol doing its job. “You think?”<br/>Eames shrugs. “They’ll believe the truth even less.” <br/>“No, no, no, no, no! You are not getting out of this one!” Yusuf waves his hands dramatically, the glühwein sloshing about in his half empty mug.<br/>“Okay then.” Eames looks at Arthur for confirmation, who merely shrugs. <br/>“You see, I was an exchange student in a small American highschool. You know, the British kid, charismatic, mysterious, <i>interesting</i>!”, Eames starts with a flourish..<br/>“Fucking obnoxious is what you were”, Arthur interrupts, and Eames laughs.<br/>“Got your attention, didn’t it?”<br/>“I guess it did.” He takes a sip of his drink. “So I asked him to prom, he said yes, it was a whole scandal, and here we are.”<br/>“No wait!” Ariadne shakes her head, indignant. “First of all, there’s like, the whole middle missing in this story!” <br/>Yusuf nods, equally agitated, but Arthur looks unperturbed.<br/>“You only asked how we met, and we already told you even more than that. It’s your own fault for not asking more specific questions.”<br/>“Ohh, and Arthur definitely likes <i>specificity</i>”, Eames chimes in, somehow managing to make that sound dirty, and Arthur rolls his eyes.<br/>“Okay, fine”, Ariadne concedes. “<i>But</i>! You are not seriously trying to tell us that you were <i>highschool sweethearts</i>.”<br/>“I mean, I wouldn’t say exactly sweethearts, but yeah, essentially, I guess that’s true.” <br/>Arthur is looking at Eames when he says that, and the smile they share is so full of love and memories that Ariadne has no choice but to believe them, and Yusuf nods along like it all makes perfect sense.</p>
<p>A few hours later, when they’ve finally all gone back to their rooms, Arthur and Eames are cuddling in bed, too tired and quite frankly too drunk to do much more.<br/>“So, highschool sweethearts, huh?”, Eames remarks, clearly amused.<br/>Arthur giggles, not only because the alcohol has lowered his inhibitions, but because he knows that he doesn’t need to keep his guard up with Eames.<br/>“It seems like they might have actually believed us this time.”<br/>Grinning, Eames shakes his head. “We’ve had more plausible stories over the years though.”<br/>“Yeah.” Arthur presses a quick kiss to Eames’ collarbone. “I don’t think you would have liked me in highschool.”<br/>“Darling, I think that was kind of the point of our story.”<br/>“Hm, yeah, true. I guess it would have been all worth it for the scandal at prom.”<br/>Eames chuckles. “I kind of like that image. Us dancing, happy and in love, and everyone else looking on in shock and jealousy…” <br/>He trails off, clearly lost in the thought, and Arthur smiles.<br/>“Don’t worry, we can have that at our wedding.”<br/>“Yeah we… wait, what?” Eames freezes, sitting up a little to look at Arthur, who just keeps smiling.<br/>“Come on, you can’t tell me that you’ve never thought about it.”<br/>“No, I mean, of course I have, but… I mean…” <br/>Eames is clearly overwhelmed, and Arthur takes pity on him and leans in to kiss him softly.<br/>“It’s okay, I still absolutely expect a grandiose, dramatic, <i>romantic</i> proposal. I just wanted to make sure that you don’t need to have any doubts about my answer.”<br/>Finally, Eames smiles, relieved and happy, and when he kisses Arthur soundly, he thinks that even though they might not be highschool sweethearts, <i>husbands</i> definitely has a nice ring to it.</p>
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